Read an interesting history on Suntour. They went under when Shimano first came out with indexed shifting. Suntour gambled that cyclists would still prefer friction shifting and lost a couple of years before getting an indexed system into production. By that time it was too late as most of the manufacturers had already switched to Shimano as their groupo supplier.

They were a victim of the Japanese recession.

I did see somewhere on the 'net that there were mountain bike parts made by someone using their name, but I have heard nothing since. I even saw a website bearing the Suntour name and showed 8 speed MTB parts.

Sakae Ringyo (a.k.a. SR- suppliers of cranks, bars, and stems) and Suntour closed their U.S. offices sometime between '96-98.

One of the old Japanese component names I have seen a bunch of in the '80s whom I think is doing okay is Sugino. I still like their cranks and chainrings, despite the lack of "panache" shown by their Taiwanese counterparts.

You never know- Descente is trying to make a comeback- Suntour may do so, as well.

Nothing, company is still going strong - they are just not a mainstream manufacturer/supplier here in te US these days!

http://www.srsuntour-cycling.com/

In fact, take a look at the latest iteration of the Suntour Superbe crankset - is it just me or does that bear a resemblance to Shimano Ultegra?

Michael

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I thought they were dead. No road stuff besides their cranks, eh?

"company is still going strong -"

Fairly certain that it's not the original company. I believe only the name was resurrected.

I've got an old Miyata frame with Suntour components that I still use occasionally.

Here's a link to a fairly lengthy history of the company, if you're interested.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~hadland/page35.htm

Ken

I was under the impression that technical apparel for winter sports (snow skiing) was Descentes main business and that cycling was more of an addon for them now and in the 80's?



Michael

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1987

SR SUNTOUR was established by Sakae Ringyo Company with a capital investment of 45,000,000 NT$ in Tokyo, Japan. 1988

Established a factory and office with an area of 11,000 m2 at 7, Hsing Yeh Road, Fu Hsing Industrial Zone, ChangHua, Taiwan, and began manufacture of mid- to high-end aluminium bicycle components.
2001
New factory at ShenZhen, China formally begins production. Michael

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As I remember, SR had excellent indexed shifting systems, better than shimano in fact, and did end up being specc'ed on a lot of bikes. What really killed Suntour was STI, they were unable to develop a viable alternative to STI, unlike Campy who were able to develop their ergopower system and come out of a very long weak period. (remember Triomphe???)

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